ad
STATUTEMILES
aods
s
Author's routes
TATUTE MILE
soo
Nib
2nd: Darjeeling to Gyangtse [seeinset]
sanseylon_
STATUTEMILES
Nioar
3
*:
_
-
-- --
_
-_----
.
"Islands
Si
Drawn by II. E. Eastwood and Irvin E. Alleman
Skirting 25,000-foot Peaks, the Author-Artist Explored the Glacier-capped Roof of Asia
Imagine a stony desert thrust some 15,000 feet into the sky. Such is Ladakh, by race and religion an arm
of Buddhist Tibet, by politics a unit of that Kashmir for which Hindu and Moslem vie (inset). An afraid-of
nothing Frenchwoman, accompanied only by her servants, the author rode ponies and yaks across the western
Himalayas to the Karakoram Range. She made three expeditions, the first and third to Ladakh, the second
to Tibet. She illustrates in her paintings the strange sights she saw (pages 665-680).
stones, each inscribed with the prayer, Om
mani padme hum, meaning, "Oh, thou jewel
in the lotus, amen."
Where Prayers Are Said by Machines
Prayer wheels, turned by hand or stream,
and prayer flags fluttering in a breeze ground
out the same supplication automatically.
Stones in a mani are carved and set by
pious monks. Their magic power is supposed
to lessen the periods of purgatory for the
spirit after death until it reaches Nirvana,
the "perfect peace" of complete extinction.
On divided trails the traveler is supposed to
keep the mani on his right hand. I always
followed the custom, though my weary por
ters, trudging beside their beasts, sometimes
neglected it (page 676).
When you are dead tired at the end of a
day's journey, a mani makes a welcome sight,
and you say to yourself, "We are near a
village."
Your wise little ponies seem to
sense the fact, too. Neighing, they sniff the
air, as if scenting friendly stables.
Mani walls, some a mile in length, generally
end with chortens, the dried-mud or stone